I appreciate the advice so far. Here's another somewhat basic, but important question... about adjusting to altitude.

Here is my plan:
4 days at 5,500 ft, minimal activity
1 easy day (loop hike, ~4 hours up a drainage, then back down), sleep at 8,500 ft.
1 hard day ~14 miles to lake near the divide, sleep at 11,000 ft.
decend next day

My question: is this too much too fast?

Would there hard day be signficantly better if I spent another night at 8,500 beforehand or would the difference be fairly minor?